The Greatest Show on Earth

We have been wanting to take the kids to the circus and decided we would wait until this year so Marlie could appreciate it all.  I'm not sure why we paid lots of money to go to the circus when we have our own circus here at home, but the kids did have fun. 

Matt was in awe most of the time and after the first act, Marlie just danced in the aisle like she was drunk off the $15 lemonde she was drinking!!  Meantime...my hair continued to turn more gray as I watched the crazy stunts. 

I now appreciate the beauty of Ringling Brothers tagging their show as "The Greatest Show on Earth".  Matt kept saying it was "the greatest show on earth" but after seeing Wicked the other week, I'm not sure it really was.  But I have to give their marketing team an A+ especially because that slogan was created so long ago.  Another thing the kids keep saying is "don't try this at home".  Luckily no one has tried any of the stunts in the living room so maybe that worked too. 

Here are some pics from the pre-show festivities.  Thanks Dad for taking us to the circus!

Baseball Camp

As most of you know my brother works here in Houston at Baseball USA.  So we were talking the other day and he said that I could bring Matt to the hitting camp on Tues.  Matt is too young to participate in the camp but Coach/Uncle Jay was leading the camp so we thought we'd give it a shot.  When I told Matt about it he was so excited.  I can't tell you how much this child loves to play baseball.  He ran to pick out his baseball clothes and pack his bag with just the right baseball gear. 

On the drive over I explained that he would be the youngest and had to listen carefully, say yes sir to his coaches and pay attention at all times.  The camp started Monday so he was already a day behind, plus about 2 years younger than the youngest kid out there.  I told him if he did good we could come back on Wed.  Well...Matt was a baseball camp soldier.  He was so focused and tried SO hard.  He was a completely different kid than I have had in my presence 24/7 for the past 2 months.  I couldn't believe this was the same kid that has been driving me crazy at home because bless his heart, he can't still for a second.  Baseball camp Matt stood still, ran to be first in line, ran into and out of the batting cages when it was his turn as if his life depended on him getting into the batters box in a matter of seconds.  When the coaches shouted "ball pick up" he ran into the cage, tore his helmet off and started collecting as many balls as possible and put them in his helmet (something he learned from intently watching the others).  I could not have been more proud. 

I love sports and am so excited for these moments that I can share with Matt.  What I am not ready for is the disappointment that sports can bring too.  Matt did pretty well compared to the other kids considering the age difference.  But on the first day one of the coaches was pitching to him and it was a little faster than he's used to.  He missed every single ball.  The look of disappointment on his face as he walked out of the cage was heart breaking.  I was so proud that he did not 1) cry, 2) get frustrated or 3) want to quit.  He sat right back down and watched even more intently.  The next time he got in the cage he tried even harder and managed to hit about 50% of the pitches.  I was so proud of him. 

Matt was so serious the entire day that I stopped to ask him if he was having fun.  He looked so nervous.  He said yes and quietly asked, "Mom can we please come tomorrow?"...so I said of course!  That night he came home and practiced.  When Dad came home he told him about camp and said, "Dad if I ask Mom to take me to camp on Saturday can you come watch me since you don't have to work?".  So cute!  So Dad made time to come watch on Wed. 

When we said our thank you prayers that night and Matt said, "thank you God for letting me go to baseball camp even though I'm not 6" and "thank you God for helping me to listen to my coaches".  I had the best day with him that day.  It was the same feeling I had taking Marlie to ballet for the first time.  It was awesome! 

It's the morning of Day 2 and I told Matt that he had 2 strikes...one more strike and no baseball camp (of course I'm praying at this point that we don't do something bad enough to force me to call strike 3 because I know how bad he wants to go back to camp).  All of a sudden Marlie starts crying, "I want to go to baseball camp!"  Miss Marlie was so good each day and worked on her batting stance too!

Thank you to Uncle Jay for letting us come to camp.  You have no idea how much that meant to Matt.  He is already asking when he can go back.  And thank you to Coach Flowers and Coach Gerald for being so kind and patient. 

My SoccerTot

Marlie has also been busy this summer learning to play soccer!  Dad wants her to play next year and since she cries when someone else kicks the ball and then picks it up and runs away... I thought we should ease into this sport!! 

So yesterday was our last day at SoccerTots.  We had class with Ashdin and Addison and had lots of fun.  There was a huge improvement from day 1 where Marlie cried pretty much the entire time to the last day where she was a rock star.  It's not really all about soccer, but about agility and balance and following instructions.  Here are Marlie and Ashdin having a great time...

This was a great idea to get the kids interested in soccer.  Hopefully we can play next Spring!

Happy 4th of July!

We had such a great, but busy 4th of July weekend and I had so much fun that I was cameraless most of the weekend. 

Friday we went to Payton and Gracie's house just to hang out.  The kids had so much fun and Matt and Pay had a blast running around the house playing hide-and-go-seek.  Saturday we started swim lessons at our neighbor's house with Coach George.  He was great so I'm excited about working with him over the next few weeks.  Matt did great and is swimming pretty well.  Marlie did so-so, but we made huge progress later in the weekend.  Matt and Payton did a lesson together and Marlie and Gracie did their lesson together.  It was fun...well for the parents anyway. 

Saturday was Doug's birthday so after a nice lunch at his favorite spot - Chuy's - my parents took the kids and we headed downtown.  We stayed at the Hotel Icon (loved it - don't miss the berry citrus caipirinhia) and met some friends for dinner.  Then we were off to see Wicked which was just fabulous!   I have to thank our friends, the Krenzkes, for planning this big outing.  We ended with a great breakfast on Sunday morning at our favorite breakfast spot - Empire Cafe.  It was too much fun!!! 

Sunday night we headed to the Conner's house for 4th of July festivities.  We had fun chatting and doing some kid-friendly fireworks.  Marlie thought they were way too loud and headed straight into the house after just a few sparklers! 

The highlight of the weekend for Marlie was that her Dad got to come to her ballet class.  She showed off well and he was so proud of her! 

And then on Monday night we spent the evening at the pool.  It was a big day for the Maziur's...Marlie started swimming by herself...well she wears a life jacket but before that day she would not let me go.  Then she also went on the big blue slide.  She didn't really want to the first 2 times but after that she kept asking to go "1 more time".  I bet she went down about 8 times.  Matt was doing great showing Daddy that he could swim about half a lap which is much more than I can even do.  I'm so proud of them!!

Sidelined

Oh my sweet Matt...remember a few posts ago I mentioned that he tries so hard, but bless his heart is not the most coordinated kid I've met?  Well we were outside and he said, "Mom wanna see me do a flip on the bar?" and of course I said yes.  You know how you hang upside down by your knees with hands on the bar outside of your legs?  Well he got up there with one hand between his legs and I said "NO" too late and watched him try to "flip" off the bar.  Of course with his incorrect position he did not make it.  He hurt his foot (luckily not his face which I thought hit the ground fairly hard).  After limping for a couple of days I thought I should take him in.  No broken bones on the xray but doc wants to keep him in this splint for a few weeks.  So our fun summer activities have slowed down a bit.  Trying to keep this little man still is like asking a flea to sit still!  Not gonna happen.....

Ballerina Girl...You are so Lovely!

Ok so admit it.  At some point in your life you liked Lionel Richie too!  I hope I don't have this song stuck in  your head as it is in mine! 

We are doing lots this summer and having a great time!  I think what I was most excited about was Marlie starting ballet.  As you may remember we tried gymnastics about a year ago and it was horrible.  Marlie was shy...but a mean shy.  She didn't want to do anything and was mean to anyone in her class that looked at her funny!  So I was honestly very nervous on our first day.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that her teacher was Ms. Stacey (she owns the studio and I've heard how great she is).  I promised Marlie if she did good in class and listened to her teacher that I would buy her a pretty pink princess tutu for the next class. 

Well...I don't know if it was the awesome teachers or the fact that I could not be anywhere in the room, but she did awesome!!  She followed directions the whole hour without crying and actually looked like she had a blast!  Again I had to fight tears through the whole hour so all of the other crazy Moms didn't think I was a crazy Mom too! 

I had some trouble getting good pics the first few classes but managed some good ones this week.  This is the outfit she got from Papa and Nona Lisa for her birthday! 

Here is a kinda cute pic from day 1.  I was struggling to get pictures through the glass window.  I am definitely not a professional, just a good camera and great subjects! Nene bought this outfit for her for Christmas!

And here is day 2 with our new pink princess tutu.  She loved it!  And of course a picture with our friend Emma!

Now if only I had my friend Nicole's sewing skills.  I could make some too cute tutus pretty cheap!  This is so fun!  I love every minute!!

Marlie's 3rd Birthday

I can't believe it but Marlie is 3!!!  We had a great weekend that was kicked off by dinner on Friday night at Marlie's choice of fine dining establishments...we ended up at Denny's!  Saturday morning all her little friends came over and we had a Tutus and Tiaras party!  It was lots of fun.  The kids jumped in the bounce castle, the girls made tiaras and the boys made shields and they all made castles too!  Marlie got super shy when everyone started singing but about half way in realized that it was kind of neat to have all of the attention for once!  You can see all the craziness going on in the slide show. Thank you all for coming.  We have such special friends to celebrate these occasions with!